Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2022-23 season

9. Fordham Rams

The Rams were the biggest surprise in the league last season, finishing 8th (8-10 conference record) despite receiving easily the fewest votes in the preseason A10 Coaches’ poll. While former HC Kyle Neptune is off to greener pastures (no knock on Fordham – safe to say Villanova would be “greener pastures” for any A10 coach), with his former sidekick Keith Urgo taking over, the team should still be good enough to keep some of their momentum and compete around the middle of the standings.

From a roster standpoint, the returning players most worth keeping an eye on are senior guard Darius Quisenberry, who put up 16.2 points per game and can score from all three levels; Kyle Rose, a combo guard who was up-and-down last year but cracked double-digit scoring eleven times; and Antrell Charlton, a physical wing who does a little bit of everything and averaged 7.3 points, 5.4 boards and also the team in assists with 3.5 per contest.

The Rams did lose a few players that were real difference makers – most notably big man and consistent double-double threat Chuba Ohams, but Urgo and co. did a solid job of replacing the scholarships with a strong Freshman class and decent transfers. Will Richardson and Angel Montas are two big-time combo-guard recruits who each had a bevy of Power 5 offers and should help give the Rams one of the deepest backcourts in the conference from the jump. 6’7” Georgia Tech transfer Khalid Moore is also worth mentioning as someone who averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 boards in the ACC last season.

The frontcourt depth isn’t quite where Rams fans might want it to be, but with how well this team rebounds across the board and swarms on help defense, that lack shouldn’t prove fatal to their prospects. Overall, it’s tough to put this team above any of the teams listed in the 4-8 spots on paper, but they have established themselves firmly enough to remain inside the top 10.